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Set in 1875 Bizetâs Dream tells the compelling and bittersweet story of the friendship shared by a young Parisian girl named Michelle Marin, and the great composer Georges Bizet, who teaches her piano.
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The waltz was all the rage in 1860âs Europe, and composer Johann Strauss Jr. was the known as the "King of Three-Quarter Time." In this movie, Strauss is stressed by the pressure of outdoing himself with each new composition and the memory of his late fatherâs disapproval of his music.
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Set in 1717, Bachâs Fight for Freedom is a story about the positive power of ambition. It focuses on a temperamental, demanding composer and a free-thinking servant boy, both of whom feel like prisoners of circumstance.
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Set in 1816, the year "The Barber of Seville" had its disastrous premiere, Rossiniâs Ghost is the story of three women who learn that friendship, like opera - or great pasta sauce - requires nurturing, patience, and time.
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Filmed on the 250th anniversary of Bachâs death, this production guides the audience through the composerâs life. Selections from Bachâs orchestral and religious works are heard and excerpts from many of his masterpieces are performed on the harpsichord, clavichord and piano.
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Until the end of the eighteenth century, a musician in Europe was a skilled craftsman, basically a servant of the aristocracy. Beethoven saw himself as an artist, a creator. He ended the Classical Era of European music (1750-1800) and began a new era where the musicians were free to express themselves.
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Born in 1898 in New York City, George Gershwin was the son of a non-musical immigrant family. At a young age, he was fascinated by a friendâs player piano and taught himself popular tunes of the day. Today, many decades after his death, Gershwinâs music is known throughout the world as quintessentially American.
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The music of America in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century was Ragtime, and the King of Ragtime was Scott Joplin. Born in 1868 in Texarkana, Texas, he came from a music loving family and began to study piano at the age of seven. By fourteen, he was proficient enough to leave home and travel through the worlds of minstrel, dance halls and vaudeville in Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas. . .
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Mozartâs music was the embodiment of the Classical style of late eighteenth century Europe. Teaching himself piano and violin by age four and composing by age five, he went on to dazzle the music world, becoming historyâs prototypical child prodigy.
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Franz Liszt is the 19th-century equivalent of a rock star - handsome, rich and famous beyond his dreams. But the Hungarian-born Liszt wants to be more than simply Europe's most celebrated pianist; he wants to compose great music - not just play it.
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